Saturday 18 January 2014 13.20 EST
First published on Saturday 18 January 2014 13.20 EST

Police are continuing to question the mother of the missing Edinburgh boy Mikaeel Kular after finding a child's body in Fife that they "strongly believe" to be that of the three-year-old.

Rosdeep Kular, 33, a self-employed beautician, was detained for questioning early on Saturday morning. The body is believed to have been found behind a bungalow on Dunvegan Avenue, Kirkcaldy, belonging to her sister, shortly before midnight on Friday.

The discovery, nearly two days after Kular reported her son missing, led to a detailed search at the property and the wooded area and undergrowth immediately behind it by dozens of uniformed police officers and forensics experts.

The immediate area around the bungalow, including the woods, was taped off as officers wearing white protective suits and face masks began a minute search for evidence.

The dramatic disclosure came early on Saturday morning, when Assistant Chief Constable Malcolm Graham of Police Scotland told the media, to gasps of shock, that a child's body had been found at the property, about 25 miles by road from Mikaeel's home in north Edinburgh. Announcing that further scheduled searches of streets around the boy's home in Drylaw had been called off, Graham said: "The investigation into the disappearance of Mikaeel Kular has been wide-ranging and fast-moving.

"As a result of inquiries, the body of a young child was recovered in Fife just before midnight. We strongly believe this to be the body of Mikaeel. A person has been detained in connection with the recovery of the body and members of Mikaeel's family have been informed of the recovery."

The news came about seven hours after Graham had said that police feared the worst and were "gravely concerned" after failing to find any clue to Mikaeel's whereabouts for nearly 48 hours, after extensive searches involving several hundred civilian volunteers in the area around the family home. Graham said police feared the boy's disappearance could have been due to "a criminal act", leading them to begin a full criminal investigation. Mikaeel had not been seen at his nursery at Flora Stevenson primary school since the start of the Christmas holidays: his mother said her son had been ill. Under Scottish procedure, Kular, who has four other children but is estranged from her husband, can be detained for an initial 12 hours for questioning without being formally arrested or charged, and police can apply for a further 12-hour extension for questioning.

With questions about his last hours becoming central to the investigation, Mikaeel's mother had claimed she last saw him at 9pm on Wednesday, after apparently putting him to bed. Police were then told he had disappeared by the time she went to wake him up at 7.15am on Thursday.

A neighbour living opposite the bungalow in Kirkcaldy, Olga Park, said Kular lived at that property when she gave birth to Mikaeel and his twin sister. Park said she had seen Kular drive up to the house on either Tuesday or Wednesday morning, on her own. "I'm just absolutely shocked about what's happened," Park said. "The fact he's just a three-year-old boy is just terrible. The poor wee thing." As Alex Salmond, the first minister, said the discovery of the boy's body was "a tragic development [that] we have all been dreading," it emerged that the family's neighbours had arranged a memorial service at St Andrew's Muirhouse parish church in Edinburgh. People laid teddy bears and floral tributes at the Kirkcaldy bungalow as well as outside the Kular family home.

There was a brief surge of hope on Friday after witnesses reported seeing a young boy matching Mikaeel's description running down a street in nearby Pilton on Thursday morning, but no further leads emerged afterwards.

"It's entirely possible that Mikaeel has left of his own accord and all of our actions are attempting to cover that possibility," Graham had told reporters on Friday. "It is, however, entirely possible that Mikaeel has been subject to a criminal act and an investigation has been established as a twin track [inquiry] to ensure that that eventuality is being and will be fully explored."

Superintendent Liz McAinsh said members of the boy's family, including his father, had been co-operating with the investigation. They had interviewed his nursery workers and many people with previous contact with the boy.

Hundreds of people attended a memorial service less than a mile from Mikaeel's home at Muirhouse St Andrew's Church on Saturday night. Edinburgh Western MSP Colin Keir said recent events had shattered the whole area, but also galvanised a sense of community spirit.